A field guide to AI positions

Algorithm

AI basics.

Publication dates and source age

Sources counted: 3

Publication dates are unavailable.

Assessed at this edition's evidence cutoff: 2026-09-15. 18-month boundary: 2025-03-15.

Some publication dates are unknown; the newest dated source may not be the newest source overall.

Publication age does not tell us whether a claim is still valid. Reading an old source again does not make its publication date newer. An update date does not establish that the passage we used was updated.

Open in the glossary Reading notes · Structured record

Prepared with AI assistance. Not independently fact-checked. Original sources and qualifications are below.

In plain language

A set of steps a computer can carry out to produce a result. [1]

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Explanation based on the linked sources. Claim ID: claim-term-algorithm-1a5192ba3d7825ca26b24a72. Edition 0.20.0.

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Limits & distinctions

An algorithm can include random choices. Calling something an algorithm does not establish that every run gives the same result. [1]

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Explanation based on the linked sources. Claim ID: claim-term-algorithm-09422ce4d5c74cb753a9bb98. Edition 0.20.0.

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A fuller explanation

For example, a sorting algorithm puts a list of numbers in order. Training a language model uses algorithms to adjust its numerical settings. [1] [2] [3]

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Explanation based on the linked sources. Claim ID: claim-term-algorithm-1e4c26398ee834b2e16dc7b8. Edition 0.20.0.

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How it relates to the map

Start here when separating the program’s procedure from the model it trains or runs. [1] [3]

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Editorial interpretation or qualification. Claim ID: claim-term-algorithm-25f52a21ad9f2e54a62ed1b2. Edition 0.20.0.

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https://theaiatlas.org/ideas/algorithm/

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Sources and what we read

  1. 1. algorithm

    Paul E. Black / NIST Dictionary of Algorithms and Data Structures · First-hand source · Published date unavailable · Updated 2020-11-09 · Material last read 2026-09-15

    Publication dates and source age

    Sources counted: 1

    Publication dates are unavailable.

    Assessed at this edition's evidence cutoff: 2026-09-15. 18-month boundary: 2025-03-15.

    Some publication dates are unknown; the newest dated source may not be the newest source overall.

    Publication age does not tell us whether a claim is still valid. Reading an old source again does not make its publication date newer. An update date does not establish that the passage we used was updated.

    Read scope is described in the source note.

    No archive check recorded.

    Read the definition and listed algorithm types. The entry was modified on 9 November 2020; the later HTML formatting date is not a content revision.

    Source ID: glossary-model-algorithm

  2. 2. Linear regression: Gradient descent

    Google for Developers · First-hand source · Published date unavailable · Updated 2026-02-03 · Material last read 2026-09-15

    Publication dates and source age

    Sources counted: 1

    Publication dates are unavailable.

    Assessed at this edition's evidence cutoff: 2026-09-15. 18-month boundary: 2025-03-15.

    Some publication dates are unknown; the newest dated source may not be the newest source overall.

    Publication age does not tell us whether a claim is still valid. Reading an old source again does not make its publication date newer. An update date does not establish that the passage we used was updated.

    Read scope is described in the source note.

    No archive check recorded.

    Read the iterative prediction, loss and parameter-update explanation. The page's guarantees for convex linear regression are not extended here to neural-network training. Updated date follows the page; initial publication is unspecified.

    Source ID: google-gradient-descent

  3. 3. Models

    Hugging Face LLM Course · First-hand source · Published date unavailable · Material last read 2026-09-15

    Publication dates and source age

    Sources counted: 1

    Publication dates are unavailable.

    Assessed at this edition's evidence cutoff: 2026-09-15. 18-month boundary: 2025-03-15.

    Some publication dates are unknown; the newest dated source may not be the newest source overall.

    Publication age does not tell us whether a claim is still valid. Reading an old source again does not make its publication date newer. An update date does not establish that the passage we used was updated.

    Read scope is described in the source note.

    No archive check recorded.

    Read architecture, weights, checkpoints, loading and saving. Used to distinguish a model's structure and learned values from the application around it. Example code was read, not executed; live page publication date unspecified.

    Source ID: hf-models

Edition and machine-readable evidence

Content version 0.20.0. Evidence cutoff 2026-09-15; this does not mean every source was read on that day.

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